Daytona Shores May Lay Down The Law, Adopt Beach Safety Plan

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES — A 5-month-old experimental beach safety program that separates sunbathers from cars may become law and be expanded to include all 5.2 miles of beach in the city.

About one-half mile of the beach in Daytona Beach Shores has been regulated with warning signs and orange traffic cones since March 23.

Police officers have warned those who disregarded the signs but if the city council adopts the program as an ordinance, violators could be arrested.

The ordinance, scheduled for first reading at 7 tonight, would be expanded to cover the beach from Daytona Beach south to Volusia County.

The program outlined in the ordinance is the most ambitious step yet toward beach safety in the Daytona Beach area. Once again Daytona Beach Shores leads its neighbors in trying to resolve the problem of cars vs. people on the beach.

Other beachfront governments did nothing to address the problem until the Florida Supreme Court ruled in June that they could be sued for traffic accidents on the beach. Night beach driving has been prohibited in Daytona Beach Shores since December 1983, 19 months longer than in neighboring Daytona Beach.

The night driving ban in Daytona Beach Shores was prompted by the death of Jack Shauf, 54, who was hit by a car while walking on the beach at night with his wife, Marilyn, 55, on Sept. 17, 1983. Mrs. Shauf, permanently injured in the accident, has threatened to sue but in a letter released Tuesday, her lawyer, W.M. Chanfrau of Daytona Beach, seeks a settlement of $300,000, the limit of the city's liability coverage.

City officials have made no decision about the request but Chanfrau demands an answer by 5 p.m. Sept. 16, the last day Mrs. Shauf can file suit and meet legal deadlines. Chanfrau predicted a jury would award Mrs. Shauf as much as $5 million.

Daytona Beach Shores officials have reported no traffic accidents at night since the ban went into effect and have recorded only two accidents with one injury since they began experimenting with daytime beach safety. With that record, officials are confident they could prove to a jury that Daytona Beach Shores has tried to make its beach safer.

City Manager Bob Holmquist said the ordinance would require drivers to remain within the north and south traffic lanes. It also would prevent sunbathers from lying on the beach or in lounge chairs beside their parked cars or in the traffic lanes. They could sit next to their cars in chairs because of more visibility but would be encouraged to use areas of the beach off limits to vehicles. Cars could only park west of traffic lanes.

The orange traffic cones lining the test area would be removed under the expanded program, Holmquist said. Instead, 80 six-foot-tall signs with warnings about the speed limit of 10 mph and parking would be placed 300 feet apart along the beach.

Daytona Beach on Tuesday was attempting a similar program, where signs on the beach told drivers to keep right and park west of the traffic lanes. Farther north in an experimental traffic zone, orange cones outlined the road. In the area where there were no cones, people parked wherever they wanted to. Holmquist said he hopes drivers will remain in the traffic lanes once the traffic cones are removed in Daytona Beach Shores. If they don't, Police Chief Frank Daraio said, the cones will be put back. Violators will face a maximum penalty of a $500 fine and 60 days in jail.

The safety program would begin Sept. 30 and would serve as the city's answer to the state Legislature, which passed a law in May prohibiting beach driving unless approved by a majority of a government's ruling council.

The ordinance would expire Jan. 1, unless the city council renewed it, again by a majority vote. Holmquist said the renewal vote would give the city a chance to study the findings of a city-appointed task force studying beach driving. Recommendations in the report, due by Christmas, could include a timetable to permanently ban cars from the beach.